Extra small condoms for boys as young as 12 could soon be on British shelves.

The Hotshot condoms are going on sale in Switzerland after research found that not enough 12 to 14-year-old boys were having protected sex.

The condoms are likely to end up on sale in Britain, said their manufacturer Lamprecht AG.

A spokesman said the UK would be top priority if the company expanded abroad, considering it had the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe.

Nysse Norballe said: At the moment we are only producing the Hotshot in Switzerland.

But the UK is certainly a very attractive market since there is a very high rate of underage conception.

A standard condom has a diameter of 52mm in comparison with the Hotshots 45mm. Both are the same length 190mm.

According to a study of 13 to 20-year-olds, a quarter said that a standard condom was too large.

Hilary Pannack, of teenage pregnancy charity Straight Talking Peer Education, said: We know young people are having sex and if this is what it takes to protect them, we need to go along with it.





-- Edited by Ncsmusic on Thursday 4th of March 2010 11:40:08 PM